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Saturday was a good beer day- Big Al Brewing Co. for a sampler: Tripple, Alt Bier, Abbey Wheat, Smoked Porter and the IPA were all very tasty. The Alt Bier and Abbey Wheat stood out among the crowd. We stopped at Cask in West Seattle, a new wine/beer bar that opened just 5 weeks ago. The owner offers a “to-go” section that focuses on imports. We stayed for just one, Fremont Brewing Co.’s Interurban IPA dry hopped with Cascade hops, Lime, Orange and Grapefruit zest. Damn good. Porter House– just across the street has about 12-15 beers on tap- Pliny the Elder was up for grabs but I went with this new brewery- North Sound Brewing. Both their Stout (classic dry Irish stout served on Nitro) and their IPA were stellar. A night in was filled with IPAs- 7 Seas Ballz Deep Double IPA (in a tall boy can) and an IPA from Yakima Craft Brewing Co. But now for your week in beer:

Nemsis, Founders’ Barley Wine is out and available tonight! Stop by and if you get your hands on this, please report back to bb.com. Look for this beer at your local beer bar – you lucky people that live in the mid-west or north east!

Get schooled on hops and yeast! The Ginger Man will be featuring Mikkeller’s Single Hop Series and their Yeast Series. The beers in the Single Hop Series use a control recipe with a different hop in each brew, showcasing the flavors and aromas of one variety of hop. Same rules for the Yeast Series, this time with varying yeast strands. The Single Hop Series will be on draught and the Yeast Series will be in bottle format.

Tonight- 15 beers…15 different styles….including Rochfort 8 & 10, Orval, Duvel, and many more. There will also be a special something from De Struise. This event is free, but Bogie’s is asking for a $5.00 donation. All proceeds will be donated to MCPCA Walk for the Animals.

The Little Woody celebrates this ancient brewing technique as adapted by American craft brewers, featuring beers aged in wine barrels, whisky barrels and oak barrels, which uniquely flavors and intensifies the beer. The Little Woody 2010 will encompass two days-September 3 from 5 -10pm and September 4 from 12pm -10pm on the lawn of the Des Chutes Historical Museum in Downtown Bend. Admission to the event includes a commemorative glass. A tasting package is available and includes a commemorative glass and tasting tickets. For more information click here.

Annual national moving bike festival put on by hometown heroes New Belgium. Featuring bands, good people, good brews and a damn good reason to get silly! Bring a bike and a funky costume for maximum enjoyment. For more info, click here.

Iowa microbrews are getting some love today- Come down to the brewery and taste the best beers that Iowa has to offer and meet the brewers who make these great brews as they serve you. Live music, local food will also be part of the event! Proceeds go the the Juvenile Arthritis Foundation and Iowa Brewers Guild.

So thats your week in beer. If you go to an event, want us to post about an event, please leave a comment or email us at beerblotter@gmail.com! Cheers!

A weekend of home brewing and beers at Fremont Brewing Co., it was quiet and delightful. Fremont Brewing Co.’s Interurban IPA dry hopped with Centennial and Thai Basil as well as their Summer Solstice with lime are both amazing brews. But now for your beer week ahead.

The first in the series of three Brixx Cask Events. This month will feature Bell’s Two Hearted Ale and tickets are $20 per person. Tasters receive a hearty Pairings Pizza, a pint of Bell’s Two Hearted Cask AND a regular pint of Two Hearted for a true comparison. A real treat as there are only a few of these firkins in North Carolina.

7:00PM-10:00PM @ Urban Farmer
Chef Matt Christianson of Urban Farmer Restaurant has partnered with Upright Brewing owner and head brewer, Alex Ganum, to celebrate summer’s quintessential ingredients: Beer and Barbecue. Chef Matt and Alex have collaborated on a five-course dinner that pairs Oregon Dungeness crab, Wagyu beef and Afton Field Farm chicken with farmhouse inspired beers that are brewed just a few miles from the restaurant in the Rose Quarter’s Left Bank Project. Price is $65 Per Person plus gratuity. For reservations, contact Urban Farmer at 503-802-4630.

Sample some of the best beers the industry has to offer in your very own festival tasting glass. Soak up those delicious beers with Ed’s “Best of the Wurst” German-style buffet, which includes German sausages, red kraut, potato and pasta salad, and a nice assortment of Eddie’s Breads from the Wonderful Good Market.

The $30 ticket also gets you some great entertainment, and a free shuttle to and from all of the local hotels.

The festival sessions are from NOON- 4PM and 7-11PM. $30 per session. 21+ ONLY!

Highlights of beer for this weekend: 1/3 of Beer Blotter visited Walking Man Brewery (look for a 52 places article later this week) while I stayed in Seattle soaking in the 90 degree plus weather. I stopped at Fremont Brewing Co. on Saturday and enjoyed their Interurban IPA on cask dry hopped with Cascade hops and Mango. Damn good. But now for the week ahead.

Stone held this charitable event last December. The premise, donate blood and get a free Stone Brewing Co. pint glass. No beer today, you need your strength for this good cause. Come support the San Diego Blood Bank and Stone Brewing Co’s efforts to give back to the community.

Want to see if you have the palate of a beer judge? Come find out during a blind tasting of some of the popular IPA’s on the market. See if your favorite is really your favorite. Prize if you can correctly identify all the beers. Good luck!

I know, I know, this place again. Im beginning to think that when we take a trip to ATL, this beer bar is a must stop! Tonight, 11 Southern Tier taps will be pouring. Fingers crossed for Oak Aged Unearthly IPA, Choklat, Jah*va and more!

Come and sample many great beers of different styles and origins! Doti’s biggest beer event of the year takes place under a large tent in the parking lot, come mingle with the locals and expand your beer knowledge!!

If you want to mention an event, have a review about an event or want to chat about beer, leave a comment or email us at beerblotter@gmail.com. Cheers!

Look out for the top competitors from both states (Pelican Brewing Co.- go there someday; Black Raven Brewin Co- WA Rookie of the Year; Double Mountain- quality brews and Fremont Brewing Co.- the Center of the Universe)and no matter where you are from, remain unbias- good beer is good beer!

May the best city win!!!

Tonight Beer Blotter hangs with some of the best brewers in the USA at East meets West– more on our encounter with beer royalty later!!

Prior to living in Seattle, New Orleans is where I called home. I think it is safe to say that New Orleans is one of the least environmentally conscious of the larger American cities.

In all fairness to this wonderful city, while I was living there (2005-2007), she was going through a rough patch…to say the least. Now, after living in Seattle for three years, I have embraced the green way of life (well, green for me anyway). I don’t own a car; that is right, I bike and bus it EVERYWHERE.

The thought of placing a glass bottle or can in the garbage makes me ill and I even have thoughts of composting…its a journey, not a destination, OK!

In honor of Earth Day which is this Thursday, April 22, I present to you an article focusing on not only those environmentally conscious breweries but what you can do and drink to celebrate our lovely planet. Right away, New Belgium Brewing Co. (Fort Collins, CO), Fremont Brewing Co. (Seattle, WA) and 21st Amendment Brewing Co. (San Fransisco, CA) come to mind.

New Belgium aims to reduce their carbon footprint by 25% by utilizing various methods before, during and after the brewing process. For example, New Belgium invested in a more efficient brew kettle called Steinecker’s Merlin. This brew kettle is deemed more efficient than standard brew kettles because it heats thin sheets of wort rather than the whole kettle at once. Going above and beyond, in 1999, New Belgium became the largest private consumer of wind-power electricity at that time and the first wind-powered brewery.

Throughout the brewery, green building practices have been implemented. From their website:

Lighting. We take full advantage of the more than 360 days of sunshine in Fort Collins by using UV blocking windows, sun-tubes, and light shelves.

HVAC. Using evaporative coolers, we can condition our 55,000 square foot packaging hall with no compressors, using much less energy.

Materials. In our new packaging hall, the interior wood is beetle kill pine. Summit County, CO, anticipates that mountain pine beetles will kill 98% of their lodgepole pines. So, we’re giving these fallen trees another life.

New Belgium is a model business and an amazing brewery. So next time you drink a Ranger IPA or a Love, remember its all for the good of the planet. How’s that for justified drinking?

Moving right along to 21st Amendment, home of beer in a can. Microbrews in a can?!?!?!?!? Yes sir and its a growing trend. 21st brews three beers that call the can home: Brew Free or Die IPA, Hell or High Watermelon and the newest of the bunch, Monk’s Blood. Just to throw some numbers your way, we are going to look at the environmental impact of packaging your beer in a can v. a bottle.

To package beer in glass bottles, you are using more than twice the amount of H2O compared to a can. In the end, the energy savings that accumulate when you recycle a ton of aluminum are far greater than they are for glass—96 percent vs. a mere 26.5 percent. 21st Amendment dares to be different and we applaud you for that!

Now we come full circle to Fremont Brewing Co. in Seattle, WA. Currently, Fremont does not bottle or package their beers, so you have to stop by the brewery for a tasty pint or to fill a growler.

On that note, (although I am unsure of Fremont’s future plans of distribution) draught beer’s environmental impact can be 68% lower than bottled beer, due to packaging differences. Although picking up a six pack is generally more convenient, using recycled containers is better for the environment (shout out to Georgetown Brewing Co. who also does not bottle/package their beers).

Fremont Brewing Co. uses all organic, local ingredients and used brewing equipment. They also focus on energy conservation through increasing natural light through expanded windows and the placement of white walls; exchanging 400 watt halide lights to fluorescent lighting reducing consumption by approximately 50%; and utilizing processed heat waste (from the equipment) to heat the space, instead of using gas blowers.

For more information of how Fremont Brewing is saving our ever endangered environment while brewing delicious beer, click here!

So what to do on Thursday April 22, 2010 to celebrate beer? Indulge in a beer from an environmentally conscious brewery; fill a growler instead of buying bottles; drink in the dark with the help of some candles and think about what you can do to help save the environment!

Events to consider for Earth Day?

Join Beermongers in Portland, OR for their Earth Day Party! They will have information about and examples of Tropical Salvage furniture including our new bar. Information about re-usable bottles such as Captured by Porches, and cans such as Fearless will be provided. New Belgium will host a special tasting event from 4pm to 6pm including a unique draft beer and Free samples.

OR

Stop by Hop Cat in Grand Rapids, Michigan at 8PM for their Lights Out Party where you can enjoy beers by candlelight. environmentally friendly AND romantic!

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!!

NOTE: Home brewing can reduce the environmental impact of beer via less packaging and transportation! Do it.

We like to experience beer, we like the state of Washington and we like Redhook Brewery (you must take one of their tours- lots o’ beer and knowledge for $1.00). We were asked to share information about the 2010 ExBEERience and are honored to do so. We will be in the far off land called Belgium during this event, but if we were in Seattle, you better believe we would be there!

Entry is $20 in advance, $25 at the door and includes entry, lunch and 9 beer tokens. Additional tokens available to purchase on site; ATM available. Advance tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets, http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/98927.

This event is hosted by the Cascade Brewers Guild (also known as the Cascade Brewers Club), a group of beer aficionados and enthusiasts. They host competitions, enjoy brewery tours and have frequent social events. To learn more about joining the CBG, check out their Yahoo Group. The meetings, unless otherwise specified, are held every first Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM at Mountain Homebrew & Wine Supply, Inc., in Kirkland, Washington. The public is welcome to attend, but after the third meeting they request annual dues of $20 to join the Club.

Beer Blotter loves seeing other motivated beer lovers and drinkers! We wish the Cascade Brewers Guild “best of luck” with the upcoming event! Its going to be a great event and we wish we could be there!

Port Brewing and Lost Abbey brewer Tomme Arthur will be at the Memphis TapRoom to char about his world class beer. The draft lineup will include Mongo Double IPA, Older Viscosity, Hop 15, Wipeout IPA, Gift of the Magi (’08) and Carnivale in addition to some super limited edition surprises. Take Note—> bald folks with glasses get an additional $1 off Port Brewing and Lost Abbey drafts.

We want to give some love to our local Seattle brewery, Fremont Brewing Co. who is bringing their tasty beers (Universale Pale Ale will most likely be there) and their brewing tales to Green Frog Cafe.

Come out to sample on tap from Victory Brewing Co., Harvest Pils, fresh hop pilsner using hops from the Finger Lakes region and St Victorious, our excellent Doppelbock. We will also be drinking Golden Monkey, Storm King and Yakima Twilight bottles. Brewers Sean and Pete will be there to answer questions and talk about beer.

Join Adam Avery of Avery Brewing and Jonas Nemura of The Bruery at Boulder’s newest brick-oven pizza joint. Five courses will be paired with two beers per course. What a deal! Call Pizzeria Basta at 303-997-8775 for reservations and more information.

Starting today until March 6, 2010, Beveridge Place Pub will feature 50 rotating barleywines on draught from the West Coast’s best breweries including many new releases as well as vintages from the cellar! 24 dedicated Barleywine Taps throughout the Fest! Look for upcoming information regarding special tasting events during the Bacchanal. This is an event not to be missed! Beveridge Place Pub DOES NOT serve food, but encourages patrons to bring outside food if they are hungry!

What to expect from Dogfish Head? 60, 90, 120 Minute IPAs and Burton Baton on tap (Try a flight). Also they’ll have bottles of: 2007 Burton Baton, Pangea, Old School, Black and Blue, and Immort Ale with food pairing special and glass giveaways with purchase.

Beer Blotter has a big weekend coming up with Bacchanal at Beveridge Place Pub. We plan on having a what to drink guide up on beerblotter.com later this week, so check back and hope to see you there! As always, if you have an event you want us to post, want us to try a beer, want to get a beer, then leave a comment or email us at beerblotter@gmail.com! Cheers!